How to Make a Water Elevator in Minecraft

Water elevator is no longer a strange concept in Minecraft. Especially these days, when traveling in Minecraft keeps improving over time. People are lazy to take staircases, instead, most Minecrafters prefer automatic transportation.

So in this article, let’s see how to make a water elevator in Minecraft and explain how it works!

Minecraft Water Elevator: Prerequisites

Depending on the size of the water elevator (1×1, 2×2, etc,…), you will need a different amount of blocks. In this guide, we will make a 1×1 water elevator because it’s easy to build, require less time to gather the resources, and saves space.

You will need 1 magma block, 1 soul sand, 2 water buckets, some fence gates, a few stacks of kelp, and some building blocks. With a 1×2 water elevator, you will need a double amount of materials and so on.

To get magma block and soul sand, you need to enter the Nether dimension. Magma blocks tend to spawn near the lava lake and soul sand can be found anywhere in the Nether, but mostly in the soul sand valley biome.

You can craft a water bucket using 3 iron ingots, which can be obtained from a mining trip. The kelp plant can be found in most ocean biomes. Just swim down and take a quick look! You will see some big green grass grow from the ocean floor.

For the fence gates, you can craft them using 2 wooden planks and 4 sticks.

What you need to build are two tubes filled with water source blocks. The soul sand block will push you up while the magma block will pull you down at a high speed, making traveling in the water way faster than normal ladder climbing or taking stairs.

How to Make a Water Elevator in Minecraft

Assuming you already have two floors and there are at least 4+ blocks tall between them. Let’s build a water elevator!

#1 Make the Going Up Water Elevator

Choose a corner, dig in one block and dig up, and make your way to the second floor. Then place 2 fence gates right on the outside of the first floor. This is to prevent the water from flowing out later. When you’re done, you will have something like this.

If you don’t have any kelps, you need to gather enough water buckets to fill in every single block in this column. But if you do have kelps, you only need to place a water bucket on the top block. Then let it flow down.

Next, let’s replace the bottom block of the tube with a dirt block. Then plant the kelp on it and keep planting the kelp until you reach the top. The reason you need to do so is that planting kelp on any flowing water will turn them into a full water source block. When you’re done, feel free to break the kelp on the bottom to destroy them all.

Remember to put another 2 fence gates on the second floor to prevent the water from coming out. Then jump to the first floor, break the dirt block and replace it with soul sand. You should see the bubbles flowing upward just in a second.

#2 Make the Going Down Water Elevator

With the same concept, you can create another elevator. But this time, use magma block instead of the soul sand. This way, the magma will pull you down. It’s recommended that you should build those 2 elevators near to each other so you can go up and down faster.

Congratulation! You’ve successfully built a water elevator in Minecraft!

Frequently Asked Questions

What Block makes water go up?

Soul sand will make water go up, while magma block will make the water go down. So keep this in mind!

Why won’t my soul sand make bubbles?

The reason soul sand won’t make bubbles is that there are some flowing water blocks in the elevator instead of a full water source block. Double-check and see if you find it. Otherwise, you can replace all the water and do it over again.